Bolsonaro’s lobbying regulation leaves several blindspots

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro issued a decree imposing transparency on senior government officials’ public schedules. At first glance, the regulations seem to aim at preventing conflicts of interest and influence peddling — but the legal instrument is full of loopholes. Moreover, it will only be fully enforced one week after the 2022 election and will not apply to the president or vice president.

In its essence, the decree requires high-ranking officials to disclose every event they attend by way of an online scheduling platform, informing the reason for the meeting and the people present.

The rules add that meetings with lobbyists must be explicitly listed as such — and are only permitted if they are related to policy, public procurement, or legal and administrative acts. 

On the same day, the Executive branch also sent a bill to Congress regulating the practice of lobbying.

However, “one-off meetings between public officials and those interested in decision-making processes related to them” are not classified as lobbying, providing they are held in a social or unintentional context, “unless the facts and circumstances ascertained can be proven to represent an interest.” The decree includes no detail on how to prove those circumstances.

Thus,...